


Teen Wolf, Season 1, Episode 3, Pack Mentality

by TheSomewhatRamblingReviewer



Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Analysis, Episode Review, Episode: s01e03 Pack Mentality, Meta, Nonfiction, Season/Series 01, Spoilers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-20
Updated: 2018-09-20
Packaged: 2019-07-14 13:39:20
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,302
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16041572
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheSomewhatRamblingReviewer/pseuds/TheSomewhatRamblingReviewer
Summary: Warning: Contains spoilers for both the episode and the rest of the series. Complete.





	Teen Wolf, Season 1, Episode 3, Pack Mentality

Open to Scott having a dream of making out with, and then, attacking Allison on an empty bus at night. At one point, Allison’s face does not look like her face at all, and I’m not sure what caused this.

Interestingly, though, despite not knowing Allison that well at this point, even though she’s a victim, she also shows strength and determination, and she does almost escape because of this.

At school, Scott’s telling Stiles about the dream.

Scott suggests Derek might be able to help him learn control, and smacking him, Stiles brings up the fact they got him tossed in jail.

I’m not sure if Scott deciding Derek might be a good option is real or if he just believed painting himself as desperate to get any help he can to keep himself from hurting anyone was a good idea. It’s worth noting, the reveal Derek didn’t bite him hasn’t happened yet, though, maybe, he did lie about when it does. I don’t believe Derek told him in the first episode, but it could have happened sometime during the second and he decided it’d be better for the story if it happened later on.

Then, they go outside, and someone or something attacked someone or something in a bus.

Back inside, Scott is freaking out about how he might have actually hurt Allison. He gets separated from Stiles, punches a locker door off the hinges, and then, runs into Allison.

He’s relieved, they agree to meet up for lunch, and after she leaves, he discovers it was Jackson’s locker he destroyed.

If it were anyone else, aside from Lydia, I’d be more sympathetic.

Next up is chemistry, and Adrian Harris is introduced. He separates Stiles and Scott, Jackson stares/glares at Scott, and a girl alerts everyone to an injured man being loaded into an ambulance.

There’s a jump scare, and I actually hope this is unreliable narration, because, otherwise, those paramedics and the deputies are utterly incompetent. The man should have been secured to the gurney via safety restraints. Even if they believed he was dead, they still should have secured the body so that it doesn’t accidentally fall off and get contaminated/sustain injuries they’d have to try to rule out from other injuries inflicted during a possible crime.

Scott’s convinced he hurt the man, and at lunch, they talk more about it until Allison, Lydia, Jackson, and Danny Mahealani join them. Whatever O’Brien was going for, I’m invoking the trope of death of the author. Stiles is both bisexual and totally has a little crush on Danny. However, Danny is simply annoyed by him.

Danny brings up the fact a cougar might have been responsible, Jackson says he heard it was a mountain lion, and Lydia snippily informs Jackson a mountain lion and cougar are the same thing.

There are hints up to Night School that Lydia is smarter than she’s letting on, but I usually don’t care enough to point them out. Yes, she’s a literal genius. Yes, she chooses to mostly hide it up until said episode. No, I don’t particularly care about her ‘I’m going to hide my pain behind a shallow facade and quest to be the most popular queen bee’. She’s cruel, self-absorbed, and often says things that make my blood boil.

As I said in my first review of the show, Roden is a talented actress, and I have nothing against her a person. I simply don’t like her character for the first two seasons.

Stiles pulls up a video of news on the attack, and Scott recognises the man as a bus driver on a bus he rode when he lived with his dad.

I think this is a genuine re-con/continuity error. At this point, I don’t think the writers had Scott’s backstory with Raf (I so wanted his name to be Jack) fleshed out.

Lydia invites herself and Jackson on a double-date with Scott and Allison. Rude.

There’s a moment I sort of like where Jackson declares stabbing himself with a fork also sounds like a fun idea, and Lydia actually takes the fork away. Heh.

Bowling is suggested, Jackson only finds bowling fun if there’s true competition, and this raises Allison’s heckles. Scott declares he’s great at bowling.

Cut to Stiles’s proclamation in the hallway, “You’re a terrible bowler!” Hah!

Scott goes on about how everything, including the fact he might have killed some, is going wrong in his life, and Stiles is offended Danny doesn’t find him attractive. He tries to get reassurance he’s attractive to gay guys, and Scott’s like, ‘I’m going to completely ignore your confusion over your bisexuality for the rest of the series.’

At the vet clinic, Scott profusely apologises for being late.

Seth Gilliam is a lot like Posey, except, in his case, I never found anything shady about Deaton until the third season, and even then, it was only one thing. It wasn’t until meta spelled some things out that I realised how shady Deaton is. I really like Gilliam’s acting, and I still tend to automatically assume the best of Deaton, because, Gilliam makes him so likeable.

Here Deaton is nicely dismissive of Scott’s apologises, and he praises him for being such a hard worker.

There’s a creepy shot of the sheriff, but it turns out, he’s just come by to get a K9’s stitches out, and he’s friendly towards Scott. He talks to Deaton about what might have attacked the bus driver, and a wolf attacking Laura is brought up.

Scott interjects. He claims he read somewhere about wolves not being in California, and Deaton agrees but says wolves are migratory, and it’s reasonable to assume some could have crossed state lines.

At the hospital, Scott uses the ambulance entrance only, and Melissa has on different scrubs than she did last episode. I will bring up her changing scrubs every time it happens.

He’s brought her food, and she says, “You are the most thoughtful, loving, conniving little con artist ever.” Hee. Refusing to let him have the car for his date, she takes the food and bounces with a, “Love you.”

Something makes his senses go off, and he finds himself in the non-police guarded bus driver’s room.

Really? Even if the police completely believed it was an animal attack, I’m not sure they wouldn’t have an officer or two hanging around. There’d still be a wild animal out there, and there’d be a possibility the victim could have seen something that pointed them in the right direction of finding it/sending animal control. In this case, though, they think it _might_ be an animal, but it could also have been a human. What’s to stop anyone who attacked him from doing what Scott is doing right here and waltzing in?

I’d think, at least, the hospital itself would have security if the police didn’t, because, the hospital would be afraid of getting in legal trouble if a patient they had a reasonable reason to assume might draw a dangerous criminal to the hospital drew a dangerous criminal in who hurt/killed said patient and possibly others/their own staff.

On another note, there’s a possibility Scott, not Peter, did this, but I do believe it was Peter with Scott just having a pack-like link that manifested the dream.

Back in, Scott tries to talk to the unprotected man of a violent attack.

The bus driver creepily grabs Scott’s jacket, has some sort of seizure and/or freakout, and appearing, Melissa gets Scott free and orders him to get out of the traumatised patient of a violent crime/animal attack’s room.

I swear, Melissa shouldn’t ever be having money problems with the way she legit runs the hospital. Most of the doctors are incompetent, unavailable, or shady, the idea of security doesn’t work even when it is employed, and then, there’s Melissa getting stuff done.

Admittedly, there’s probably some unreliable narration going on with the above, but still, Melissa’s awesome, and she should get more acknowledgement from other people besides Scott in canon at how uber-competent she can be.

Next up, a deputy with a K9 rolls up to the Hale house. Declaring it county property, dispatch orders the deputy to make sure the property’s empty.

Sheriff Stilinski is awesome, but if his habit of sending officers out alone, even into situations with a low-threat of being dangerous, is accurate,this isone thing about him I absolutely disagree with.

Inside the house, Derek’s blue wolf eyes are revealed as he terrifies the poor K9 to the point the deputy peels away without doing his duty.

Scott appears. “I know you can hear me. I need your help.”

There’s a cut, and Derek opens the door. It’s rainy outside. “Okay, I-I know I was part of you getting arrested, and that we basically announced you being here to the hunters. Also, don’t know what happened to your sister. But I think I did something last night.”

I’m not sure this amount of self-awareness is real. Scott tends to think he’s more self-aware than he is.

Derek constantly frustrated me when I first watched the first season, but I could admit there were times when he did have legitimate reasons to be irritated towards Scott and/or Stiles. When it comes to Laura, Stiles acted purely in good faith. He thought Derek killed her, and so, he got Derek arrested. Scott, however, lied to make Stiles more motivated.

Good faith or not, though, it had to hurt to have his mutilated sister’s remains disturbed, and aside from any feelings on the matter, being arrested could have put him in legitimate danger if there were hunters on the force or the hunters just found out and managed to get him when he was in custody.

Here, if Scott thinks Derek bit him, then, Scott basically announcing Derek to the hunters is more Derek’s fault than Scott’s. Yes, I agree, Scott shouldn’t have played, but I always laid out the reasons why, if Scott believed Derek bit him and if Derek truly acted the way he did afterwards, Scott would be justified in not listening to him.

Moving on, Derek asks, “You think you attacked the driver?” He’s unsympathetic in stating, yes, Scott will probably hurt and/or kill someone.

Derek says he can help Scott remember and learn how to control his shift but that he won’t do it for free.

Scott asks what he wants, and Derek cryptically answers, “You’ll find out.”

Warm, incredibly personable Hoechlin does so great at making Derek a prickly, creepy, often mysterious character.

Derek directs him to go back to the bus. He says Scott’s senses will trigger a memory of what happened. Scott says he wants to know if he (Scott) hurt the driver, and Derek’s not exactly wrong when he says, “No, you don’t. You want to know if you’ll hurt her.”

I do think Scott would rather not hurt anyone at this point, but understandably, he’s more worried about his girlfriend’s safety than that of any strangers.

People tend to place loved ones above strangers, and this can be good or bad. Mostly, it’s just human nature.

Later, it’s night, and Stiles drives Scott to the non-police secured bus. He’s grumpy about always being Robin rather than Batman, and Scott has no patience for his geekery.

During this scene, Posey does wonderful at selling Scott’s fear, confusion, and unease. He has memories of sleeping, the dream comes back, on the bus, he takes in all the blood, and then, he sees the driver being attacked, and he imagines alpha Peter clawing him.

Outside, it’s raining, and noticing someone coming, Stiles honks his horn.

Wouldn’t a phone call/text be the better option?

Scott gets to Roscoe, Stiles peels away, and it’s not raining anymore.

Scott declares some of the blood is his, and I doubt this. For one thing, unless Melissa falsified forensics evidence, the police would have already made a match to him.

I don’t think Scott was there. Again, I think it was just a pack-link that manifested in the dream.

Stiles brings up the logical point, “Why would Derek help you remember that he attacked the driver?”

Of course, the answer could be that people who do bad things aren’t always the most logical of people. Some people like to taunt their victims and others with what they did.

Stiles thinks it might be a pack initiation thing where Derek wants them to kill together, and he’s happy Scott didn’t, because, it means Scott won’t kill him. Scott’s big concern is this means he can go out with Allison.

Stiles, pull over and smack him again.

Over at Allison’s, she’s getting advice from Lydia on what to wear when Chris comes in without knocking. Lydia acts seductive, and Chris doesn’t even notice. Despite the lack of knocking: Good, Chris.

He makes it clear Allison isn’t going out during a police enforced curfew. I have no objection to this, but I don’t like Chris for most of the show. He’s hypocritical, self-righteous, and a bad parent.

Even the worst parents can occasionally be reasonable/do something right. This is one of the few instances he does.

However, despite my dislike for the character, Bourne does do great at showing how multifaceted he can be and making him somewhat sympathetic despite all this.

When he leaves, this is one of the scenes that made me love Allison’s character. Exiting her window onto the roof, she does a somersault down onto the ground. “Eight years gymnastics. You coming?”

Thankfully, Lydia was okay in this scene. There were parts of it where she was annoying, but I liked her reaction when Allison was doing this and her statement of, “I’ll take the stairs,” afterwards.

Roden and Reed have a warm chemistry, and Roden does comedy well.

At the bowling alley, it’s revealed Allison used to bowl with her dad, and she asks when the last Scott bowled was. He stumblingly answers at a birthday party.

“When I was eight,” he adds after she walks away.

Also, he’s wearing stripes in this scene. Stripes=Possession. He may not be under Peter’s control at this moment, but he has been and will be again soon.

Lydia and Jackson show PDA, and Lydia pretends to be bad.

Scott is terrible, and Allison is irritated at Jackson’s jerkiness.

Over to Derek, he's at a gas station, and Chris and some other hunters appear.

Back at the bowling alley, Scott manages to be do well when Allison whispers for him to think about her naked.

At the gas station, Chris is creepy and cruel. He makes it clear Derek should stay away from his family, and when Derek is sarcastic, he has one of the hunters break Derek’s window.

Next up with the teens, Scott is winning nonstop, Lydia acts sexual towards her friend’s boyfriend, _classy_ , and Lydia shows off her own skill.

Allison privately suggests Lydia stop pretending to suck for Jackson’s benefit.

Here’s the thing: I absolutely despise slut-shaming, and I think most of how Teen Wolf handles sexuality is great. There are some instances I absolutely hate, but when it gets it right, it really gets it right.

I don’t like the way Lydia approaches her sexuality in the earlier seasons. It’s not the fact she enjoys sex or has causal sex I object to. It’s how the fact she uses her sexuality as a weapon, focuses solely on her own pleasure with little-to-no care about how her partner(s) might emotionally feel towards her, and makes slut-shaming comments herself.

There’s an implication here Lydia gives Jackson’s blowjobs, and my main objection is she brings up a detail of her and Jackson’s sex life, without his knowledge or consent, to make Allison uncomfortable.

Though, even if it weren’t for the grossness of this, I’d have still been happy to not know this.

It’s a fact a lot of teenagers are somewhat sexual. I’d prefer it if adults gave them comprehensive information on how to protect themselves, access to said things they need to protect themselves, and that adults over a certain age didn’t try dating/hooking up with them, though, I find the fact, in some places, an 18/19-year-old can get on a sex offender registry for having truly consensual sex with their 16/17-year-old boy/girlfriend ridiculous.There are teenage characters I ship, and the fact some of them are established to have sex doesn’t bother me, but even when adult actors are playing them, it can be uncomfortable once certain lines of explicitness are crossed.

Moving on, after this, Jackson is playing at a some sort of machine, and Scott tries to make peace with him. Jackson says he doesn’t hate him, but he is going to find out what his secret is.

Scott has a line I like here, “How do you cheat at bowling?”

I’m sure there are ways not involving werewolf reflexes, but as Jackson himself acknowledges, this is a fair point.

At the hospital, the still unguarded driver is visited by Derek.

I understand Melissa might not want to admit her own son broke in, but couldn’t she have done something to get some security on the guy?

Getting him to wake up, Derek asks what he remembers.

“Hale.”

Confusion crosses Derek’s face. “How do you know my name?”

“I’m sorry.”

Derek presses for answers, but the driver either dies or simply refuses to continue on.

Elsewhere in the hospital, Melissa is about to leave when a signal something has happened to the unguarded man goes off.

She finds him dead.

The show presents an ambiguity on whether Derek killed him, but it falls somewhat flat due to Derek’s clear confusion and lack of earlier aggression. He wasn’t gentle, but until his confusion got the better of him, he didn’t even raise his voice. He was never shown making physical contact with the driver.

Meanwhile, Scott has walked Allison home. She makes it clear she’d like a date with him sans the annoying ones or anyone else, and he’s ecstatic.

They kiss, she goes in the front door instead of sneaking back in her room, and it’s shown creeper Chris is watching from a window.

I’m surprised she’s not completely grounded by next episode.

At the McCall house, Melissa finds Scott missing from his room, hears a noise, and attacks Stiles with a baseball bat. I like the way Stiles eventually turns the weapon used against him into one of his own.

Scott appears, it’s made clear Melissa doesn’t particular like Stiles, and nor is she up for truly parenting Scott.

After she goes to bed, Stiles tells Scott about the driver dying.

Over at the Hale house, Scott accuses Derek of killing the driver, and hidden, Derek’s voice echoes. The driver died, his sister was missing, and he came here looking for her.

“You found her.”

“I found her in pieces! Being used as bait to catch me.”

There’s a werewolf fight, and then, Derek lays it out: Neither of them killed the driver. Also, he didn’t bite Scott.

I really wish Scott had demanded to know why Derek didn’t tell him this much sooner. Canonically, Derek had a tendency to massively mishandle things in the earlier seasons, and so, the writing isn’t sloppy in an effort to add more drama per se, but it would have been interesting if Derek were confronted about his tendency to mishandle things much earlier.

Scott has another memory of the bus.

Derek explains alphas are the most dangerous of their kind. Laura came to find the alpha, and now, he’s looking for it. The alpha bit Scott, and he needs Scott’s help finding it.

Outside, alpha Peter lurks.

Fin.


End file.
